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Rafael Benitez

Jesse Pinkman

by Jesse Pinkman
in Football

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TRon

TRon

Posted
Posted

Nice e-mail from Rafa this morning.

 

Rafa Bentiez:

 

First let me start by thanking you all for the heartfelt reception I have received since I arrived. It was an honour to be asked to take charge of this club and I could not have asked for a warmer welcome.

 

As you know, work began with intensity from the moment my coaching staff and I arrived. Our first job is to make sure we remain a Premier League club and this week we have committed everything we have to making that happen.

 

Whilst the result on Monday at Leicester wasn’t what we wanted, I was pleased with parts of what I saw. We have worked intensively on the areas that need improvement and I am confident we go into Sunday’s game well-prepared.

 

I have been in the opposing dug out at St. James’ Park and I know that when I take my place on the home side, I will be backed by some of the most passionate fans in the world.  In fact, the strength of your famous support is one of the many things that drew me to this club. 

 

On Sunday, Sunderland’s team will face not only the 11 players on the pitch, but a 50,000-strong army.  I hope you will not underestimate the importance of the role you will play on Sunday; you can make the crucial difference for us.

 

Let’s create a wall of sound and a tide of black and white. I am sure there will be respect on both sides, that's important, but I have no doubt that the atmosphere you will create will be electrifying and imposing.

 

We are ready…

 

In turn, I know the team will play with the passion befitting of this historic fixture.  We will give our all to honour the tradition of the derby and take the victory we need.

 

I know you’ll be behind them.

 

The bit about the wall of sound and tide of black and white gives you goosebumps just reading it.

 

I was feeling quite pessimistic this morning after reading a Caulkin interview with M'Vila but reading that has given me a good lift. No waffle with Benitez, the guy is so direct and full of purpose and just seems to be obsessed with football.

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1964

1964

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Posted

That sort of email just reads so much differently when it's coming from a world class manager. You want to get behind them. If it was McClaren/Carver/Pardew etc. you just hate them more for it.

 

Exactly, when it comes from a manager and leader it has a different feel than from the bloke in charge of shouting 'Retreat!!'

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Dave

Dave

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3499454/Rafa-Benitez-not-fireman-s-winner-intense-methods-having-effect-Newcastle.html

Rafa Benitez is not a fireman, but he's a winner, and his intense methods are already having an effect at Newcastle

 

He isn’t a fire fighter, that is the first thing you should know. When clubs find themselves battling relegation and change their manager, they often go for someone who has been there before.

 

They will look for someone with knowledge of what it takes to get away from the bottom, men such as Harry Redknapp, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce.

 

Others, such as Tim Sherwood at Aston Villa, Paolo di Canio at Sunderland and Peter Reid at Leeds, inspired late rescue acts by motivating their players.

 

Newcastle haven’t got that with Rafa Benitez. They haven’t appointed someone who will work to bond the squad or who will take a player aside, put an arm around him and leave him feeling a million dollars. They haven’t even appointed someone who is familiar with relegation battles.

 

The only time Benitez has been in this position, back in 1999, Extremadura lost their fight to stay in La Liga. Since then, it has been all about winning trophies and working with some of the best players in the world. This is what makes Newcastle’s decision to recruit him so intriguing.

 

But do not think for a moment that a life at the high end means Benitez will not know how to get results working with these players under this kind of pressure. Just because he isn’t a larger than life character, it doesn’t mean he won’t have the impact for which Newcastle are hoping.

 

What Newcastle have got is a manager who players will listen to because of his cv, someone who is excellent in one-off games. He is brilliant at stopping the opposition from playing and that is one of the reasons we did so well in Europe during his time in charge at Liverpool.

 

Teams hated playing against us. The games would be horrible for the opposition because we would not give them any space to breathe. If you asked me to say the one word I heard most during training and games, it would be him shouting ‘compact’.

 

After the first year of working with Rafa, we were like robots. By that I mean we knew exactly what he wanted us to do and when to do it. This came about through repetition on the training ground, the drills being done over and over again until he was satisfied.

 

It demanded a high level of concentration and there was no laughing or joking. Newcastle’s players will have realised what is in store for them, given that he has cancelled all days off until the end of the season, whereas they could expect a midweek break under Steve McClaren.

 

Rafa was intense and you had to be prepared for him to physically push and pull you into the positions, but the results followed. As I said, though, it took 12 months for us to really understand his methods and we had much better players. Will Newcastle feel the benefit within two months?

 

You could see at Leicester, however, that he has had some impact. Rob Elliot, for instance, kicked every ball from his area long. The idea was to stop Newcastle being counter-attacked and stop the pressure from N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater. Sending the ball long kills pressing and counter-attacking.

 

But they need more than just organisation if they are going to stay up and the showdown at St James’ Park against Sunderland will have a huge bearing on what happens. The added spice to this story is the tension between him and Allardyce.

 

Rafa has never liked Allardyce since their first meeting in August 2004 at Bolton. That was Rafa’s ‘welcome to England’ game, when he saw Sami Hyypia get his nose broken by Kevin Davies during one of the aerial assaults on our goal. We lost 1-0 and Rafa couldn’t believe what we had faced.

 

I don’t buy this idea, though, that Allardyce was some sort of bogeyman for Benitez. Allardyce has not achieved anywhere near as much as Benitez as a manager and how could he have got under his skin when Rafa has won seven of the 12 matches — including all six at home — when they have played against each other?

 

Where Rafa didn’t help himself was making comments that rubbed other managers up the wrong way. I always felt that when we played against Allardyce’s teams, they wanted the points off us more than they did against Manchester United.

 

Do not doubt how much Allardyce would love to relegate Benitez — he has never forgotten a gesture Rafa made to imply Blackburn were finished during their 4-0 defeat at Anfield in April 2009.

 

Sunderland have the better chance of survival because Allardyce has had a transfer window, a five-month head start in terms of working with his squad and now he has a slightly more inviting run-in than Newcastle.

 

Sunderland also have Jermain Defoe, whose goals have been worth nine extra points for Allardyce since he arrived last October. Defoe has been huge in getting Sunderland out of the drop zone and Newcastle, who are the second lowest scorers in the Premier League, don’t have anyone similar. There is no guarantee, then, that Benitez will stop Newcastle falling through the trap door but I can absolutely understand why he has chosen St James’ Park as the place to re-launch his career as a manager in England.

 

It was his priority to get back to our game after being sacked by Real Madrid.

 

The potential is there if he can turn it around. Newcastle are the 17th richest club in world football with the potential to earn even more next season when the new television deal kicks in. They could possibly be taking players away from clubs like Benfica and Porto this summer.

 

So the attraction is obvious. As it stands, he has no chance of getting a job with one of the top six clubs in England. He is basically an interim manager but if he succeeds in his task, things will have to change at Newcastle.

 

He will want control over all football matters. He won’t be just after a quick fix.

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Dave

Dave

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If he keeps us up he'll finally have this relegation experience on his CV, he'll have his pick of relegation battles going forward.

 

Exactly. If we stay up, spend big in the summer and the club is transformed over the next couple of years into one regularly challenging for Europe then who knows, he could land himself the Middlesbrough or Hull job.

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